NJDOE News

School officials can now apply for some entitlement grants on-line, thanks to a new computerized grants management system launched recently by the New Jersey Department of Education.

"This new system will make it easier for the districts to submit their applications and will reduce the number of errors. It will expedite the review and approval process, allow people to check the status of their applications on line and generally provide faster turn-around times for grant approvals," said Commissioner of Education Dr. William L. Librera.

"We also expect that it will result in more accurate record-keeping within the department and allow data for monitoring and reporting purposes to be retrieved more quickly," Librera said.

Entitlement grants are awarded to districts for specific programs based on eligibility formulas (which include such criteria as population, enrollment, per capita income or a specific need) prescribed in legislation or regulation.

Using the NJ EWEG (Entitlement Web-Enabled Grant Application), school districts can submit their complete federal FY 2005 IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) applications. The FY 2005 federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) grant application process will be partially electronic, supplemented by a streamlined parallel paper application designed to capture information that cannot be entered on-line at this time. Applications for both of these grants must be submitted by September 30.

DOE officials anticipate that the NCLB application will be entirely electronic next year.

New Jersey's EWEG system was built with commercial, off-the-shelf software and is similar to the grants management system designed, implemented and maintained for Missouri and customized for other states such as Kansas and Illinois.

"It's proven technology, and all a district needs to use it are internet access and a web browser," said Commissioner Librera. The EWEG system can be accessed 24/7 via the NJ DOE Homeroom page at http://homeroom.state.nj.us/. Members of the public will be able to view submitted grant applications in a read-only format.

More than 1,000 staff members from districts throughout the state participated in eight EWEG training workshops conducted by the DOE in June.